WEBINAR: Simple Ways to Incorporate Holistic Approaches Into Your SLP Practice

Led by Brenda Lovette MS CCC/SLP RYT
Owner of Healthy Expression:
Holistic Speech Pathology and Health Coachin

This Program Aired on:
Thursday, December 5, 2013 7-8pm EST

Missed it? Sign up anyway and you will receive the recording and materials packet by email.

Cost: $18

This program will give you practical and powerful techniques to move your practice in a holistic direction. 

Who is this for?

This program is designed specifically for Speech Language Pathologists, but may be interesting to clinicians and providers of all kinds

What will I get?

• A new understanding of the benefits of holistic approaches
• Confidence to follow your intuition to maximize your services
• Greater state of health for your patients/clients, and for yourself!

The program includes:

• A 50-minute course, accessible live and available to view after recording
• Techniques and tools to use immediately
• Reference documents including definitions of various terms and resources
• Research articles and other publications to support your movement toward a holistic practice

Are you ready to expand the scope of your practice?

All materials will be sent to the email address connected with your paypal payment, so be sure you check it before December 5.

Hash Browns Supreme!

It was a weekend morning. We wanted something fancy. But eating out is pricey and often disappointing (since we've been perfecting our culinary skills and consistently choosing high quality ingredients to use in our dishes). Pancakes wouldn't do. Oatmeal gets old. We needed something SUPREME!

Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes, diced
- 2 small onions, diced
- 10 crimini mushrooms, sliced
- half a bunch of Kale, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic
- oil of your choice (I use reserved bacon fat, yep you heard that right!)
- 2 tsp each of thyme and tarragon
- salt and pepper to taste

Method
Toss sweet potatoes, onions, and garlic in oil in your favorite pan (mine was cast iron). Cover and let cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are nearly tender when pierced with a fork.
Add mushrooms, kale, and spices. Toss, stir, till cooked to your liking. Serve with bacon and eggs, or all on it's own. Yum!

Aphasia on Screen: Ram Dass in Fierce Grace

"Aphasia is a loss of language, not a loss of intelligence." That is the National Aphasia Association's motto and tag line. It's an empowering nod to all the individuals who are living with this disorder of communication. Maybe it helps. But it doesn't cure all of the frustration and hard work that comes with having aphasia and surviving a stroke. I must say however, as someone who has sat across from so many individuals with aphasia and other communication issues, these "barriers" don't eliminate their ability to deliver some truly powerful and moving lessons.

Ram Dass is a famous contemporary spiritual leader who was at the height of his popularity in the 60's and 70's. He was(is) well loved by the "hippie" movement and spiritual seekers for his book Be Here Now and for helping to make Yoga and Hindu spirituality more accessible to Americans. In February 1997, Ram Dass had a left hemisphere stroke which left him with right sided weakness and expressive aphasia.

In 2001 he "starred" in a documentary which included his perspective on aging and his aphasia in addition to his life story. I watched the documentary recently and was on the edge of my seat! It was a beautiful illustration of  how Speech and Communication and Spirituality can be so interconnected (one of my favorite things to muse about).

The documentary opens with a clip of Ram Dass in 1969 speaking eloquently and esoterically about the discipline of the yogi to stay present through both physical/external and internal distractions. Then cuts to a more recent interview with him, gray haired and communicating with aphasia. From my perspective as an SLP, Ram Dass's aphasia is on the mild side (mild anomic aphasia to be exact), but his language skills are markedly different from pre-stroke, and immensely frustrating for such a high level communicator, no doubt. The movie was full of these juxtapositions: clips of Ram Dass pre-aphasia or people reading from his eloquent books and letters, followed by clips of current interviews or   speaking engagements. All equally moving and insightful.

Watching this film made me think about my own experiences talking with people with aphasia and the unconventional but effective way ideas are often shared. I have experienced that sometimes "odd" metaphors and word finding pauses, transparent facial expressions, and unspoken parts of an interaction can be even more powerful communication than fancy words and sentences.  Often these messages need little extra explanation. They stand alone. This is good news! It helps me to recognize that we can all be powerful communicators, no matter our real or perceived barriers to being fully expressed and to using our voice.

I had so many favorite moments in this film. Ram Dass working with his Speech Pathologist (of course I loved that). Ram Dass talking about wishing to be free from the aphasia, the paralysis, but also welcoming it as an "experiment of consciousness." A clip of Ram Dass ecstatically experiencing chanting and music. And Ram Dass delivering intensely moving guidance to a young woman who was seeking his counsel after a terrible tragedy in her life. He has aphasia in all of these moments, yes. But he was just as alive, loving, and powerful as ever. Beautiful.

You can watch Fierce Grace on NetFlix or on YouTube (here)

How to Respond to Overstimulation

I recently spent the weekend in NYC, attending a conference on voice therapy and visiting my Speechie Friend Erika. Erika and I met in 2008 when I completed my clinical fellowship year in Detroit and she has been a valuable friend and colleague since the get-go. It was her dream to move to New York, and she loves that city! I grew up in the distant suburbs of New York and I visited a lot in my youth, so the city has a special place in my heart too. But I haven't been back to visit in years. I was really struck by how BUSY it is there! After all, it is "the city that never sleeps"

SLPs (speech language pathologists) and other clinicians often think about how overstimulation and extra sensory information affect our patients with autism, learning differences, and brain injury. We know that it can lead to agitation or anxiety. We understand that it negatively affects new learning, performance, and accuracy. We even create goals for people to try to improve their performance in the presence of extra sensory input like background noise or distractions. But we don't always think about how typically developing or non brain injured individuals respond to these same situations and environments. 

My NYC weekend helped me become acutely aware of how I respond to them! My work with yoga and other spiritual practices has made me more aware of the energy of different people and places. And my intentional lifestyle, which includes early bedtime, lots of fresh clean food, and rest was definitely in contrast to my weekend on the go. I ate out almost every meal, I stayed up late to reconnect with my friend (and to match that notoriously night owl-y NYC clock), and I did a lot of hurrying around to arrive on time to busses, my course, social dates, etc. On monday, by the time I boarded the T at South Station for the last leg of my journey home, I was SPENT! I wouldn't have changed a thing. I had a blast and learned so much but I could tell the weekend had taken a toll. I was extremely fatigued and I felt like every nerve in my body was about to short circuit. I hobbled down my street suitcases in tow and got to work on damage control.

Here's how I took care of my body and mind after all that overstimulation:

1. I drank a tall glass of water. Not coffee. Not juice. Just water, to hydrate and start my intentional mini-cleanse. 

2. I played some soothing music. My favorite is the Putumayo "Yoga" album. 

3. I ate a home cooked meal. Luckily my partner had cooked the day before and there were delicious leftovers for the win!

4. I took a cool shower, with lavender essential oils sprinkled in the tub at my feet for calming.

5. I dried off and applied a soothing face mask. 

6. I finished off with the neti pot to clean out germs that had hitched a ride on my travels. 

7. The rest of the evening was all about resting and connecting. No work, no electronics. I needed to hit the reset button to be ready for the next day!

Post your comments below! What are some ways you have found to reset after being overstimulated?

Cherry Chocolate Yogurt Pops

I can't take credit for this idea but I've been scouring the web and I can't find the website/blog where I got the inspiration. If you're out there Cherry Garcia Pop Maker, I want to say "Sorry I can't link to you and THANK YOU for the amazing idea!"
This is a delicious snack, dessert, or even breakfast food. I love the tart flavor, sweetened only by the fruit. Next I think I'll try peaches, or blueberry/strawberry/banana!

Supplies:
A popsicle mold, purchase at most kitchen supply stores. It's a seasonal item so go scoop one up before the summer is over!
8oz of Greek Yogurt. I used 2%
1 cup of sweet cherries, pitted and chopped
A palmful of semisweet chocolate chips, chopped
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Mix all ingredients together and spoon into your mold. Freeze for a few hours. Run hot water over the outside of the mold to loosen the pops and slide 'em out. Enjoy!

Rest and Tune In

stop and smell the roses, look at the clouds, take a breath

This weekend at the rehab hospital, I worked with a man who had had a stroke about two weeks prior. He was a high energy entrepreneur, very active. He was in his 50's (unfortunately I have been seeing many people under 60 having strokes these days) and raring to go. I watched in shock as he answered work calls from his hospital bed during our treatment session. I listened as he expressed his concern about missing work meetings that day. He was clearly frustrated about how this medical event was slowing him down and it seemed that he hoped the whole thing would just be over soon so he could get back to business. I gave him the usual talk, his job right now is focus on getting stronger, and that will give him the best shot at a full recovery.

Later that day I taught part of a yoga class with some other graduates from my yoga teacher training. After leading the class through a series of powerful standing poses I instructed them to rest on their bellies. I watched as they huffed to catch their breaths and I told them the story of the workaholic stroke survivor I met that day. I gave them permission to rest and listen to my words and to their own bodies. I encouraged them (and myself), when given the rare opportunity to rest: Take it! And maybe even give ourselves permission to take rests when it's not encouraged and provided, just because we need it.

We all might benefit from slowing down and taking time to rest. We might hear a lot if we quiet down and listen to ourselves and the messages our body and spirit are sending us. We often don't take time to rest and rejuvenate until it's too late, until we are sick or can't muster the energy for anything at all. I've heard it said like this: When you are supposed to hear a message, first the universe sends you a letter, then it sends you a package, then you get hit by a bus.

Oprah has a similar more eloquent way of putting it:

"I say the universe speaks to us, always, first in whispers. And a whisper in your life usually feels like 'hmm, that's odd.' Or, 'hmm, that doesn't make any sense.' Or, 'hmm, is that right?' It's that subtle. And if you don't pay attention to the whisper, it gets louder and louder and louder. I say it's like getting thumped upside the head. If you don't pay attention to that, it's like getting a brick upside your head. You don't pay attention to that—the brick wall falls down. That is the pattern that I see in my life and so many other people's lives. And so, I ask people, 'What are the whispers? What's whispering to you now?'" — Oprah

Where can you listen to the whispers? What do you know you need to do "before it's too late" that you are not doing? When can you give yourself the permission to rest and tune in? Can you find a way to build this in to your everyday life?

How I Found My Voice

This blog post came to me as I was listening to the drone of voice menus, staticky hold music, and voice ad banners as I waited (not so patiently) for a bank representative from the 800 number. A relatively mundane task for most, but a task that is not to be taken for granted by many, including many young people and people with aphasia. Although I have never had aphasia myself, I have worked with dozens who have, and language heavy activities like this can be challenging! On the other hand I have been a young person and I remember many tense moments in my adolescence, coached by my encouraging (and sometimes tough) father as I gained my confidence with making "adult" phone calls. Something about this task always vexed me. I was fiercely independent but I had such anxiety around making these calls, getting on the line and using my voice. Something about the pressure of "doing it right" or "being taken seriously" or "being effective." This was pressure I put on myself, and I can see this clearly now in hindsight all these years later. This memory flashed over me as I listened to the voice actor inviting me to "clearly state the reason for my call" and "type in my 16 digit card number." (Grr, can't I just talk to a person?!)

Back then it took practice, encouragement, and time to get over the hump and "Find My Voice" in order to make those calls. Now I have no trouble speaking to reps and even firmly demanding refund of misassigned service charges etc when the occasions arise. But I am still working on Finding My Voice in other areas of my life. In many other areas. One of these areas recently surfaced as I completed this chapter of my Yoga Journey and earned my RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) Training.

Yoga can happen anywhere! Even in the middle of a babbling brook.

There are many places in my life where I have no trouble at all speaking up, using my voice, expressing myself, and feeling like an expert of my experience. I mean, I'm a SPEECH Pathologist after all! But the public speaking aspect of teaching a yoga class, especially to my RYT classmates, was a huge block for me. This environment was both particularly challenging and also the perfect place to begin working through this phase of my life long journey of Finding My Voice. Teaching yoga to a group is not only ‘public speaking’ but it requires the utmost in authenticity, connection, and alignment throughout the self. It requires absolute presence in the moment, and a real commitment to setting the ego aside.

Each time I tried to speak to my class and to share my gift and my passion for the practice, I choked. I was nervous and shaky and I despised the sound of my uncertain voice. All the while I had a raging inner monologue of "you'll never be able to do this" and "you should quit" type language. I had more than a handful of frustrating and emotionally leveling experiences as I clumsily worked through this block. There was a lot of noticing my ego, a lot of intentional self forgiveness, and a whole lot of tears!

Just like my young self's journey with speaking on the phone, it took time and support for me to navigate through that tangle. I spent hours processing with my partner, my health coach, and my peers. I began leading small groups of friends through free classes in my home. I meditated, journaled, and tried my hardest to be patient with myself. Although it was not pretty much of the time, I do feel that the process and the result was absolutely worth it. According to Andrew Carnegie, "Anything worth having in life is worth working for."

I am still a beginner teacher right now, and I have a lot to learn before my identity as a yoga instructor is fully manifested, but my process has much less fear, doubt, and judgmental energy around it. Now, I really enjoy leading a class and hearing my imperfect but authentic voice ring out. When my ego and self worth became too wrapped up in my performance I thought I had to “prove” to myself I could “do it.” Now I feel more able to relax into my role as both a student and a teacher in all areas of my life. 

To me, a successful class is one where my students and I can share a sacred time and space, and be present with ourselves and one another. I'm still working on not confusing my rights and lefts, but maybe that will come!